YouTube Throws Its Hat into the Podcast Ring

Well, it's finally happened after months, maybe years of speculation and parsing words and finding leaked. Slide decks. YouTube has thrown its hat into the podcasting ring. This week is podcast movement. And earlier in the week, YouTube quietly rolled out their podcasting interface where. Uh, you can go to youtube.com/podcasts. Now, if you've been following me on social media, you'll know that I've been hitting video podcasts hard from telling followers to get permission, to record and release video. To how to convert audio to video, I've been preaching the good word of YouTube getting in on the podcast. Action. Today i am going to talk about with you i'm going to tell you the best way for you to get your podcast on youtube how you should organize it and how you can make money on youtube and we'll round out the day with some helpful tools but first let's get into the introduction All right. So we're going to break this episode up into a few different sections. First is setting up your channel. Then it's making money. Then advice then helpful tools. I'd also recommend that you follow me on YouTube over at, uh, podcast, lift off.com/youtube. I'll be putting up tutorials there for how to make the most out of. Uh, your podcast and YouTube and showing some of this process. So I strongly recommend that, but this is make money podcasting. So we're going to focus on the money aspect. The most. Uh, so first let's start with the setup. If you don't have a channel with your podcasts name. Uh, which is what some people do. And even if you do, you should, this is YouTube's recommendation. So you should follow this basically to the letter. Um, create a playlist. That is exactly the name of your podcast. That includes a list of all full episodes. So, this is only the full episodes. This is basically recreating your podcast feed. Uh, that shows up in podcast players. So with this show, I have a playlist on YouTube on the podcast left off channel. Called. Make money podcasting. And it has all of these episodes. They are in reverse chronological order because they are episodic. If you had a serial podcast where order matters, you might release them. Uh, in chronological order from the day they came out. So keep that in mind now, over on my other, uh, my other show, how I built it, that has its own dedicated YouTube channel. But not a playlist. So something I'm going to have to do or have my VA do is go create a playlist called how I built it or how I built it. Episodes probably how I built it and then have episodes in the title or in the description and then add. Basically all of the episodes from that channel. To the playlist. Uh, this is important. This is what YouTube is recommend a YouTube recommends probably because Google has like a podcasting engine where they can figure out podcasts. Like you don't have to submit your podcast to Google. And they're using that same engine probably to identify. Uh, podcasts on YouTube. Now I will say I have a piece as I record this. It's not out yet, but, uh, I'll, I'll try to make them kind of launch at the same time. Um, so I'll link to this piece that I wrote for the podcast host. Where I dig deeper into how YouTube podcast works, how everything is organized, what YouTube considers a podcast. So I would strongly recommend. That. Um, and then, uh, and then I get into some of the monetization stuff, which I'll talk about here as well, but I recommend that piece because it's like the news. It's the news-based. Uh, and it kind of looks at the facts. So, um, So they're just set up for your main episodes. You should also have a playlist dedicated to clips from the show. I think this is again, going to be more important, right? Cause clips are shorter. They are engaging. Uh, truth. Be told I am recording this video as well. Uh, I don't know what I'm going to, I'm going to experiment a little bit here, but I'll probably release clips of me talking. So I got to remember. I look at the camera when I'm making a point that I really want to make. Um, but that's something that's something else to consider. Uh, and then you should also have maybe some behind the scenes videos and things like that for your podcast, maybe in a separate playlist or the clips playlist. Uh, so that's the setup. We'll talk about. Kind of what to do moving forward in a little bit. But I do want to get to the making money aspect of it. Right? So the biggest benefit here of. YouTube getting into podcasts and your podcasts being on YouTube is that you can leverage all of YouTube built in monetization strategies. And. In that leaked slide deck from March. They talk about getting into audio only. Uh, ads. And so, you know, there's like a lot of talk about dynamic ads. I haven't done an episode on that because I'm not. I want to make sure I really understand it before I try to do an explainer, but. Uh, basically that's what YouTube does for videos. Right? There are dynamic ads. You don't get to choose them. YouTube. Sells them and then serves them based on your audience and who, uh, who the advertiser wants to target. Whereas with dynamic ads, you have a little bit more control over what gets inserted though. Not totally. Not totally. Um, But with YouTube. YouTube is make money, make a lot of money off. Well, some YouTubers make a lot of money off of those ads. I make it pretty reliable, a hundred bucks a month off of a YouTube ads for my other channel. But. Having those ads baked in. Um, or having those ads as part of the platform. Makes your job a little bit easier, right? Because you can start monetizing. Without having to sell ads. And YouTube is already very proficient at that. So this is something that. Uh, can really benefit a podcaster who doesn't want to sell their own ads. Or isn't super keen on reaching out to sponsors. Or it could be an additional revenue stream. Right. I have videos where I have the ads turned on, but the video is also sponsored, uh, with my own. Uh, like baked in sponsor. So there's that too. Um, you know, this episode is sponsored my, how I built it is sponsored. Um, but if I could turn on, you know, the pre, the pre. Roll. It's not really. It's like pre pre video and post video ads. Uh, or even have banner ads, right. I turn off banner ads on my main channel because I don't want them to get in the way of the actual content, but. If it's, um, if it's just a video, right? Maybe I have the overlay ad. There's a lot of things to think about here. A lot of opportunity for making money on YouTube. Um, and I will say before I get into the rest of these, that at the time of this recording, YouTube has a couple of requirements. You need a thousand subscribers and you need 4,000 watch hours. I don't know if that's going to change. For podcasters. Uh, because theoretically you get no watch hours, right? Um, it's audio only medium. I don't know how they're going to count. Watch you. I don't, I don't know a lot of that stuff. It's still pretty early days. Um, as I record this. I believe the head of podcasting at YouTube is going to speak at podcast movement. On Thursday. So I'm recording before he speaks. Uh, if I need to do a follow-up episode, I'll I'll, I'll tack that onto next week's episode. But it's, there's a lot of stuff up in the air right now, because all we really know is that YouTube has rolled out a podcast page, but those are. As it stands now, that's how you monetize on YouTube. You need a thousands of subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. Uh, to monetize it all, but as is the most common way, there's also memberships. YouTube has built in memberships where people can just pay with a pay button. Uh, and, and sign up for a subscription right there. And this allows you to make videos members only. It allows you to do live streams for members only. Um, and so. It could be a really good and easy value add. Uh, where you don't have to necessarily set up a private podcast or figure that out. Uh, you can just upload additional videos. For your members. To YouTube and mark them as member only videos. There's also a super chat, super stickers and thanks, uh, which is on like static videos, super chats and super stickers are generally available on. Live V like live streams. And videos that are premiered. So people can basically do it in real time while watching the video. Uh, the thanks functionality can happen on any video at any time. But these are all direct donations. So again, maybe you want to live stream like a raw. A raw version of your podcast before it's edited. Relay FM does this, right? They live stream all of their. Uh, they, they live stream their audio. But then they released an edited version later. So, um, if you want to enable super chats and super stickers, right? Maybe you can, you can do something similar where you've got the camera going and you're recording your podcast episode. As if you're just recording, but you're live streaming it as well. Um, so that's another, that's the third avenue, right? Um, So live stream, your podcast recordings is, could be a good value add for your current audience. It can also be a members only thing. Right? So there's a couple of ways you want to, you could or want to do it. I think you'll, you'll get the most. Um, the most appeal, at least in the beginning, probably from live streaming. It. And then he gets to like cross stream to Twitch or something like that. Uh, so those are the three main ways to make money directly with the YouTube platform. Uh, you have ads, you have membership, you have super chat, super stickers. And thanks. As far as I know, there's not another. Uh, there's not another way. Um, or maybe it's just that I haven't unlocked the other way, but I think I, I. Um, I checked. And I think that's everything. Um, and you can find out kind of where you are. I have an onsite. I have an unlocked membership. Yet. Um, but, um, and there's also shopping, right? So you can list Merck, you can connect a store, enlist to merge. Which again, if you have like t-shirts for your podcast, um, Then. Maybe it's worth listing the Merck there. Right. So, um, Definitely something to consider, uh, with, with YouTube. There's a lot of on-platform monetization. Opportunities. That you could take advantage of as a podcaster. So with that, let's take a break and hear from our sponsor. And then when I come back, I'll, I'll give you some advice and helpful tools for getting your show. Uh for moving for moving forward with your show on youtube Okay. So let's talk about advice for w for what you should do moving forward. Right? I have podcast episodes since 2016. Getting good audio was a nightmare back then getting good video seemed near impossible. Um, so I know what you're thinking with your back catalog. Let's not focus on the back catalog for right now. Let's talk about kind of moving forward. YouTube, you need a catchy title. I've been talking about this for a long time. Don't make your podcast episode, just episode number guest's name. Make it something interesting. I recorded an episode today with a guest where the title is going to be. Do you really need great gear to make great content? Do I, I don't know. That's a question. It's an open loop. It's a little bit negative, right? Because people think that that's a good YouTube title. Um, so I would recommend. Titling your episodes, both in the podcast platform and on YouTube, something catchy and clickable. Uh, custom thumbnail, right? Oh, and the, the other thing here is if you want to change it for YouTube, you can, because you can experiment a little bit more. YouTube is not checking in RSS feed. This is the important thing. This is why they're telling you to make a playlist. Cause they're not comparing, you're not submitting your RSSP to YouTube. They're figuring it out. That you're a podcast and that they're going to surface you on the podcast page. So that's, you can experiment with the titles on YouTube, if you want. You should also probably have a custom thumbnail. This is not something I'm doing quite yet, because again, I'm still, I, I knew this was coming and for some reason I didn't put it together that I was going to happen the week of podcast movement, even though it makes perfect sense. Um, I'm working with my assistant now to figure out. A system that works for us, but. Custom thumbnail. If you don't have a custom thumbnail right now, use your show artwork. Right? Create. A a. Uh, 1200, uh, YouTube thumbnail sized version of your artwork and use that. And then for recording, if you're working with guests, Ask them to record video from here on out. This is where I'm going to say don't use zoom. Don't use zoom. Use Riverside. Uh, or something else? Riverside sponsored my podcast, my other podcast, but. That's what I use. And I'm a big fan. User overside to capture video. And again, at this point I'm still experimenting. We still don't know a lot. But it's good to have those assets. So even if you don't edit and release them, Uh, as a, as a full episode, it's good to have them. For your current back catalog. What I recommend is. Create a video with the shows thumbnail. And put that up on YouTube. There are a few tools that can help you here. Um, fusion cast is my favorite. It's a Mac app. That's purpose built for this. So you drop in your audio, you dropping your artwork and then it creates a video and it. A little even do like a Ken burns dissolve or transition or whatever. Zoom. Um, if you don't have a Mac. Descript is a good way to do it. Um, It's not as easy as fusion cast, but it allows you to create something a little bit more dynamic because you can add like the wave form, if you want. Um, and so The script is free for a lot of people. So, uh, and it also connects directly to YouTube. So. Those are two tools to do it manually. You're probably going to have to do it manually for your back catalog. Um, you can also automate going to YouTube. So there's two, two tools that I recommend. One is Casto that's my podcast host. Uh, on there, I think they're mid tier plan. They'll automatically send your podcast episodes to a link to YouTube channel. So that makes things a lot easier. You can put them. You could put them in a playlist. So actually I already have all of my episodes in a playlist, so I don't have to go back and do that, which is lovely. Um, or if you don't use Casto sir, another host that does this, you can check out repurpose.io. Which connects the services and kind of does the same thing. That's what I was using for a while. Until I saw Casos. Um, so I moved to Castillo's and Castillo's handled it. So. Those are four tools that can help you get your current catalog. Onto YouTube. But again, I think capturing the video at this point is going to be really important. Um, That guy, I talked to you today, Dan Bennett. Who's going to be on my show in the near future. Says that he records his episodes and edits them in premiere. And then he has the audio and the video. If that's something that works for you and your process. Great. Um, that will work for my process for this show and for, for my other podcast WP review, which is going to be called WP creators for creators soon. But it doesn't really work for how I built it because I record those interviews pretty far in advance. I bake in the ad reads later. And my editor edits the audio. So my options are kind of take that edited audio. Create clips with the video assets. I can do that. Um, or just kind of release that episode. Raw. Um, unedited on the YouTube channel, but, um, Casto is already kind of uploading for me. So I'll probably use those assets for clips. Um, where it's engaging content that gets people onto the channel and listening to podcasts, but. I think it's important to think about because. You, uh, Uh, podcasting is not an audio or a visual medium, necessarily. YouTube has taken steps in recent years to focus more on audio only. So I'm not saying you have a video podcast now. I'm saying if you have the video. It opens up another avenue for content. Um, potentially engaging contents, but. I think if you're using a tool like Casos or repurpose, or even a fusion cast. That's fine just at this point, get your podcast on YouTube. That's my recommendation. But that's it for this episode of make money podcasting presented by nexus and podcast liftoff. If you liked this episode, give it a rating and review on apple podcast. I'd really appreciate that. I'm running a little experiment where I'm trying to climb the charts there. And from what I understand, rating and reviews, help. Um, Thanks so much to our sponsor nexus. If you want to get all of the show notes, you can head over to make money. pod.com. Slash 2 0 7. That is for episode seven of season two. So 2 0 7. And until next time I'm Joe Casabona and I can't wait to see what you make.